These days, instead of pledging themselves to a respected restaurant (preferably Michelin-starred) and working their way up, some ambitious young chefs are going out on their own after only a few months at a renowned kitchen. They’re not opening restaurants of their own, however, but instead bouncing from place to place — a trend that’s coincided with the flourishing of restaurant takeovers and pop-up events.

The benefits of being a culinary nomad are several: There’s no worrying about overhead. It turns the attention to the chefs themselves, not to where they cook (fans are kept apprised of their whereabouts via social media or websites). It also allows travel — often to unfamiliar places with strange ingredients, which is crucial to culinary innovation. (Even famous chefs have been getting out of their own kitchens: Noma’s René Redzepi moved his whole restaurant staff to Tokyo last year for a five-week pop-up, and this year relocated to Sydney. In January, Grant Achatz’s Alinea restaurant popped up briefly in Madrid, and this month, Albert Adrià will be doing a 50-day cooking residency in London at the Hotel Café Royal.) Here are the nomadic chefs we’ve got our eye on.

Sebastian Mazzola and Sussie Villarico | Cooking in Motion

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From left: the chef Sebastian Mazzola and his girlfriend and collaborator, the sake sommelier Sussie Villarico, in a rare moment at home in Barcelona after cooking at a series of pop-ups around the world; Mazzola’s ‘‘Nordic landscape’’: crispy malt bread, smoked beef carpaccio and a ‘‘snow’’ of vinegar powder.CreditSalva López

When the 32-year-old Argentine was working as head chef under Albert Adrià in Barcelona at the celebrated (now-closed) 41˚, the electronica lover befriended a group of well-known D.J.s. ‘‘They were always talking to me about their travels, and I started thinking, ‘Why can’t we just go from one place to another like a D.J., showcasing our cuisine?’ ’’ he says.

So two years ago, Mazzola hit the road with his girlfriend, Sussie Villarico, a sake sommelier, to ‘‘go on a culinary adventure.’’ First up was a job cooking extravagant dinners on the beach in Mexico, followed by a pop-up series in a Moscow loft, followed by a few weeks in St. Tropez. Having studied in both Peru and Japan, Mazzola is most inspired by Nikkei food, the fusion of those countries’ native cuisines, but lately he’s been experimenting with other flavors. At a recent dinner in Norway, for example, Villarico paired sake with local reindeer that Mazzola had given a Japanese inflection with a wasabi-spiked beet sauce.

When the 32-year-old British chef and his 31-year-old Canadian girlfriend, a sommelier, were working together at Paris’s cult bistro Frenchie, they started staging guerrilla-style dinners after-hours at friends’ restaurants. In 2014, they took the concept on the road, with Cummins creating the menu and Vidal the wine pairings.

They cooked for two months at the highly acclaimed El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Spain, and did a two-week residency in London and a two-month stint in Fez, Morocco, growing addicted to the pressure and elation of constantly adapting themselves to (often vastly) different contexts. Sometimes, as at a restaurant takeover at the elegant Villa Tiboldi, in northern Italy, they’d arrange a formal white-tablecloth dinner; other times, as in the South of France, the food (barbecued fish heads, to be eaten with the hands) would be casual and rustic.

Now they’re booked through early fall, including the Omnivore Food Festival in Paris, followed by a spell at a Parisian restaurant and the summer at a hotel in Arles, France. (They average about eight pop-ups a year, ranging in length from a one-nighter to three months.) While they love the freedom of this arrangement, Vidal says ultimately she’d like to stay in one place for at least part of the year with a restaurant share, in which a few chefs would own a place together, taking turns in the kitchen every few months.

When the celebrated 39-year-old former executive chef at Astrid y Gastón in Lima decided it was time to strike out on his own, he called Kristian Brask Thomsen, who represents some of the world’s most respected cooks, to organize a world tour for him.

Muñoz will be spending a year on the road, moving from a gig in Wachau, Austria (where he will be cooking a formal dinner in a castle for one night), to Panama City (where he will be helming a weeklong restaurant takeover). He’s looking forward to the adventure — as well as the time to research and experiment (he’s made Peru’s signature dish, ceviche, with everything from apples, clams and sea urchins to just avocado and mushrooms, but wants to try other combinations as well), and to figure out where he might want to settle down next.

Haan Palcu-Chang | Mama Flo’s

From left: the chef Haan Palcu-Chang’s innovative breakfast dishes at Lazy Susan in Singapore; the Asian-inspired Le Mary Celeste in Paris, where Palcu-Chang worked as head chef.CreditFrom left: Lazy Susan; Diane M. Yoon

Half Chinese and half Romanian, the 30-year-old Torontonian was chef de partie at the Michelin-starred restaurants Kiin Kiin and Kokkeriet in Copenhagen, and head chef at the trendy, Asian-inspired Le Mary Celeste in Paris. His cooking at Le Mary Celeste received accolades from the respected Le Fooding guide, but the daily stress was wearing him down. And so, about six months ago, Palcu-Chang started traveling — mostly in Asia.

He’s now in Singapore, creating innovative breakfast dishes — including shrimp-paste fried chicken with rice waffles, fried eggs and spicy maple syrup — at a restaurant takeover called Lazy Susan. Next, he’ll head back to Canada for a few as-yet-undecided projects, and then to Stockholm in the early summer. ‘‘When I started cooking seven years ago I thought being my own boss meant opening a restaurant,’’ he says. ‘‘Now I realize I can be my own boss without taking on that responsibility.’’